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First Marine tank, need some help

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I've just acquired a marine tank, which currently has some live rock in, a maroon clownfish and a red dwarf lobster.

I really need some advice, I've done a lot of research, and I mean years leading up to taking on one of these tanks but however the tank has come with hundreds of glass anemones which I feel are doubling in numbers every day.

The clownfish seems fine however, but want to get rid of these asap. Have heard of lemon juice, peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, aiptasia-x and a few other ways. I'm wondering what the best way to do it is.

However I'm also wondering about putting the live rock in boiling water, then trying to see if anything comes back (unlikely i know)

I'm also worried about if i remove them all in one go, will the nitrate levels change rapidly?

Another thing I have noticed is the salinity of the tank when I got it is up at about 38/40. However the clownfish seems happy. Should I try an reduce this asap, or just leave it until water change?

As for the aptasias.(glass nems) I would get an army of peppermint shrimp. I would never boil your rock. the rock is the most important part of your biological filtration. Try the peppermint shrimp. If htey dont work inject the nems with lemon juice or joes juice. Both will kill them.

"Speak softly and carry a big stick"
Teddy Roosevelt
I have lots of tanks, 9 I think.

Can't speak to the aiptasia, as I haven't been unlucky enough to have any (yet, anyway).

However, your salinity does sound high. What you want your levels at depends on whats in the tank. For corals you want a higher salinity - around 1.025...for fish only, you can bring it down to 1.022ish (or even a bit less, different folks have different opinions).

If you do choose to reduce your salinity, do it very slowly, 0.001 at a time, over a period of weeks.

The only gaureenteed way to eliminate glass anemones/ aptasia 100% is berghai nudibranches http://www.berghia.net/marketprice.html They aren't cheap but all they eat is aptasia so once their gone you need to find them a new home. Peppermint shrimp are hit or miss because there a differant species sold as pepermint shrimp and not all of them eat the anemones.

I've never had any luck with chemicals. I've tried them all. I've wiped out all aptasia I could see, only to have them return in full force weeks later. I just ordered 3 berghai which will hopefully be here soon because I also have a large population of aptasia that need to be eaten. My goal is to have just enough berghai to keep them under control but not enough to wipe them out so they will always have a food supply.

When dealing with hundreds of aiptasia, aside from totally killing the live rock, the berghia nudibranchs seem to be the best bet as labnjab recommended. A question to understand the scope of your aiptasia infestion: how many pounds of live rock do you have and what is the volume of the tank?

My tank is 60 litres, so about 16g, and i've probably got about 10 pounds of live rock in there (I've just got the tank from someone else, so didn't do the initial set up so don't know precise weights). I've attached some close ups, I also think they've now spread to inside my skimmer, which I'm not happy about. I was thinking of getting some Berghia, but not sure where to get them from in the UK as everywhere seems to be out of stock currently.

Wow, that looks like a bad infestation, even worse them mine. I would get a berghai, probably 2 since they do better in groups. I ordered ours online a month ago and still haven't received them because the company is having some type of bloom that is affecting the berghai. They said they would give us a few free things for the delay so I'm not worried. Try asking around different LFS. I couldn't get any locally because most suppliers need a minimum of 20 per order and there wasn't enough interest locally

I would take the skimmer out and soak it in vinegar for a few days since the berghai can't get inside. You should be fine without it for a day or 2